ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey will deploy a warship as part of a United Nations-led force off the Somali coast to prevent pirates hijacking its ships, Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said yesterday. The government presented to parliament on Thursday a memorandum to allow Turkey to deploy naval forces in the region, where more than a dozen ships with links to NATO-member Turkey have been among the many vessels hijacked by pirates. “In the first stage, the plan is to send one warship,” Babacan told a news conference. Turkish TV quoted the army general staff as saying the navy was working on sending the warship to Somalia this month. The state-run Anatolia news agency said the memorandum envisaged a one-year limit for the deployment in the Gulf of Aden and off the Somali coast.

MADRID (AFP) – Spanish police have arrested 19 Romanians accused of enslaving 27 of their compatriots for forced labor and begging, the Interior Ministry announced yesterday. The police made the arrests in Barcelona and at Faura, near the eastern town of Valencia. In Faura, they also freed the 27 victims held captive in slum apartments, a ministry statement said. “The victims were recruited in Romania, with false promises of jobs, then they were forced to work without pay and with no freedom. When they had no work, they were compelled to beg on the streets.” The crowded living conditions in the two apartments were appalling, but the ensnared people made no escape bids for fear of reprisals.

ZAGREB (AFP) – Croatian police said yesterday they had arrested the killer of the daughter of a prominent lawyer who was shot dead in Zagreb amid a wave of mafia-style attacks in the city. “The murderer has been arrested and we know his motives,” senior police official Krunoslav Borovec told the Hina news agency, adding that further details would be disclosed at a press conference later yesterday. Ivana Hodak, 26, was shot dead on October 6 on the staircase of her apartment building, prompting Prime Minister Ivo Sanader to sack his interior and justice ministers plus the head of the national police. Her father, Zvonimir Hodak, is a lawyer for former Croat General Vladimir Zagorec, who was extradited from Austria last year on charges of embezzling more than 5 million dollars (3.25 million euros).

Officials are checking hotels in Croatia after five foreigners and a Croatian were infected with legionnaires’ disease during the Handball World Championship. Four Norwegians, a Dane and a local handball fan got the disease following the championship, which ended February 1. Ira Gjenero Margan, head of the national epidemiological center, said yesterday that experts were checking and securing all places the six might have visited to determine the source of the disease. Legionnaires’ disease is a form of pneumonia that can be spread through plumbing and air-conditioning systems. It is sometimes fatal. (AP)

Croatia has provided all the documents it has to the United Nations war crimes court trying former General Ante Gotovina, Deputy Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor said Thursday. “We have submitted to the prosecutor absolutely everything we’ve found and we sent him a new report on that at the end of January,” she said following a meeting with UN war crimes prosecutor Serge Brammertz. “The government does not have any reason to hide anything,” said Kosor, adding any additional document found would be turned over. (AFP)

The Romanian economy will grow by less than 1 percent in the first three months of this year, sharply slower than the 8.2 percent recorded in the same period last year, the Finance Ministry forecast yesterday. “During the first part of 2009, the slowdown will become more accentuated,” the ministry said in a statement. Nevertheless, the situation will improve as the 13-billion-euro (16.6-billion-dollar) economic stimulus program approved by the government on Thursday “begins to bear fruit.” For the whole of 2009, “we’re sticking to our forecast of a 2.5-percent increase in gross domestic product,” the ministry added. (AFP)